Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #12 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are presently studying Revelation 9:5:
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
We have been looking at the Greek word translated as “torment” and we have seen how it is used in a few different ways; it is used as “tossed,” concerning waves; it is used as “toiling,” when the disciples were toiling as they rowed against the waves when the wind was contrary; it is used as “vexed,” in the case of Lot whose righteous soul was vexed day by day with the evil deeds of Sodom; and it is used as “tormented,” in Revelation 11:10:
And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
How did they “torment” them? It was nothing physical. It was nothing literal, in the sense of torture or anything like that. It was “torment” through the Word of God, as the two prophets are a reference to the “two witnesses,” which are, in turn, a figure of Moses and Elijah, which typify the Bible. The Bible’s witness through the churches and congregations over the course of the church age was a source of torment to the unsaved people that were reached by the Word of God. As the Gospel went forth and the Word was preached, it brought “torment” because it talked of sin and judgment and punishment, and so forth. It troubled the minds of those that heard these things, so once the “two witnesses” were killed (and that happened at the end of the church age, at the beginning of the Great Tribulation), then “ they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” The witness of the Spirit of God through His Word had come to an end in the congregations of the world. Without God’s Spirit blessing and empowering the Word, it lost its effectiveness and, therefore, lost its ability to “torment.”
In Revelation 14, we also find the Greek word translated as “tormented,” in Revelation 14:10:
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Notice, here, that God is speaking of “torment,” just as our verse in Revelation 9:5 and in Revelation 11:10. Once, again, what is it that brings “torment” to the unsaved? The answer is that it is the teaching of the “wrath of God” which the Scriptures bring. So Revelation 14:10 is speaking of the Day of Judgment and God pouring out the cup of His wrath on the unsaved individual and “he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.” Here, God is linking “torment” with the idea of “fire and brimstone.” Therefore, “fire and brimstone” is that which is used to “torment,” and “fire and brimstone” is also language that identifies with the Word of God. For instance, it says in Isaiah 30:33:
For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.
The breath of JEHOVAH is like a stream of brimstone. God is joining together the idea of His breath with brimstone, and that is very significant because the Bible says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” And the word “inspiration” is a compound word that literally means “God-breathed.” All Scripture is God-breathed. So when we read in Isaiah 30:33 that “the breath of JEHOVAH, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it,” the word “kindle” reminds us of Deuteronomy 32:22:
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Without any question, this is speaking of the furious anger of God against the sinner in the Day of Judgment and His breath is what is “like a stream of brimstone,” and that is what ties together the idea of “fire and brimstone” because God Himself is said to be “a consuming fire.” That ties “fire and brimstone” with the Person of God and, specifically, with his “breath” or His Word. We could say His Word is like “fire and brimstone.” So it is no wonder that we find, in the context of Judgment Day, that “he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone.” It is describing the Word of God which is going to condemn and it is going to reveal “the righteous judgment of God.” Remember that verse in Romans 2:5: “…the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” It is because the “day of wrath,” or Judgment Day, which began on May 21, 2011, is also a time when God is continuing to open the Scriptures to reveal the teaching of the Bible concerning it. So we have learned (in those days after the tribulation) that God’s judgment was spiritual in nature: it is a spiritual thing to shut the door to heaven; it is a spiritual thing to put out the Gospel light; it is a spiritual thing to bring salvation to a close. No one could ever see when the door was open or when the light was shining or when anyone became saved; therefore, when God shut the door, put out the light and no longer saves people; no one can see these things. It is a spiritual judgment and it is being revealed from the Word of God like “a stream of brimstone.” These truths are flowing forth, if you can picture it, like a mountain that erupts and the volcano spews fire and brimstone and the lava flows down the mountain and devours the town below it. That is what the Bible is like right now, if we can picture it. God was patient and longsuffering until the last of His elect was saved and when that was completed (and it was when He shut the door on May 21, 2011), God erupted in fury and wrath and poured forth the judgment against the wicked of the world. These truths are flowing forth from the Scripture – flowing as “fire and brimstone” from the breath of God who has kindled it in his anger. So we are reading in Revelation 9:5:
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months…
They are tormented as the unsaved people of the world were tormented by the witness of the Gospel throughout the church age, as they heard things concerning judgment, as well as grace. It was a twoedged sword and God’s people were a “savour of life unto life” to those God intended to save and a “savour of death unto death” to those that God did not save.
Now God’s people basically continue to operate the same way they have throughout history. They search the Scriptures and they study them, looking for truth. God reveals and opens the Scriptures to their understanding and once they learn a truth, they share it with others. They speak of it and they tell family, friends and neighbors, even their enemies, of what they have learned. That is exactly what God would have His people to do today, as we share the information from the Bible. God exhorts us to publish these things and conceal them not. As we do so, we will be feeding sheep, but, simultaneously, it will bring “torment” to the people of the earth as they hear that the door is shut and there is no more salvation. I am sure some people will think, “Oh, no, here we go again! We thought we were finished with these people that speak of the Bible and tell us of God’s judgment. We thought we were done with this when that date passed, but here they are, prophesying again.” Of course, that is what God desires and commands His people to do. It is a time when we are to share truth, once again, and to prophesy. And “to prophesy” simply means to declare the Word of God.
Our verse says the locusts are given the task of not killing, but bringing torment to those that have not the seal of God in their foreheads (the unsaved) and they are to be about this task for a period of “five months.” We had previously thought that the reference to “five months” was a literal time reference and we thought this because it fit so well – May 21, 2011 to October 21, 2011, was exactly five months; and October 21, 2011, also happened to be last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and that was the likely time for Christ to return and for the end of the world. That Feast had not yet been spiritually fulfilled. However, that date came and went. Obviously, when that happened, we had to return to the Bible and restudy this and look at it again. Where were we incorrect? Where did we go wrong?
Let us go back to the Bible and to this verse and let us consider it. First of all, let us consider that in Revelation 9, we are reading of a star falling from heaven unto the earth. Was that literal? Well, no, it was a reference to Christ. He is not a (literal) star and He did not fall from heaven. It is parabolic language. To Him was given the key to the bottomless pit. Is that literal? Is there really a place called the bottomless pit? And is there a key that fits the lock to that pit? The answer is “No,” to both questions. There is no place called the bottomless pit and Christ has no literal keys to “hell and death.” It is a figure of speech. Then when it says the bottomless pit was opened and then “there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” Is that literal? Is that what we can expect on Judgment Day? Is there going to be an enormous cloud of smoke that rises out of a pit? First of all, there is no pit. There is no literal place and there is no literal smoke. Again, they are figures of speech; they are “types and figures” and parables. There is not going to come a time when an enormous smoke ascends to the heavens and darkens the sun and all the air; that is not going to happen. It is teaching spiritual things.
Then it says in Revelation 9:3: “And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” Is this literal? No – there is nothing in the Bible that would make us think that these are literal, physical locusts, especially if you look at how God describes them in Revelation 9:7-10:
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wingswas as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions…
Now just try to imagine that. If you were to try to draw a picture, that would be some creature. There has never been a creature like that known to this creation. It is a description of a creature that does not exist. Therefore, the locusts are not actual locusts, but they represent something else; we have seen (and we will learn further of this) that they represent God’s people and, in doing so, they are a “type and figure.” It is a parable when God is speaking of these locusts.
Then we read, in Revelation 9:5, that these locusts are given a task that they are not to kill, but they are to bring torment for five months. Even the word “torment” is not as it would appear; it has to do with a declaration from the Word of God that troubles the minds that hear it in regard to judgment in the Day of Judgment. We could continue on in Revelation 9 because it speaks in verse 6 about men seeking death and not finding it, and that, too, is not literal. (Lord willing, we will discuss that soon.) Then later on there is an army of two hundred million horsemen and the horses have breastplates of fire and jacinth and brimstone, and that is not literal. It is a big parable. Verse, after verse, after verse, is parabolic. It is like when Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like,” and then He would proceed to speak parables, as He did in the Gospel accounts. We are reading words similar to that when it says in Revelation 9:7: “And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses,” where the word “like” or the word “as” are used to draw a comparison to indicate that the subject matter is like something else.
So, when it comes to the “five months,” we have to ask the question: How could we ever have thought that was literal, since everything else in the chapter is pointing to a figurative understanding? Why would we have thought it was literal? The answer is because of the way the things were “set up” concerning the end of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 2011, and because that date had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of 2-17; then there was this reference to “five months” and that five months fit nicely in our calendar from May 21 to October 21, but we would have to say that God “set this up.” He also held back our understanding of a few things that permitted us to maintain the idea that there would be some sort of physical destruction on May 21, 2011, and there would be a great earthquake and the world would be chaotic for a literal “five months.” But the physical destruction never came and, likewise, the literal “five months” never materialized. We were wrong when we thought the earthquake was physical and we were wrong when we thought the “five months” was a literal time period.
We ought to have realized that in the Bible and in the Book of Revelation, especially, God speaks of “one hour” to represent the period of the Great Tribulation, which in actual time turned out to be twenty three years, and yet He calls it “one hour.” He also speaks of 1,260 days a couple of times in the Book of Revelation; it says in Revelation 11:3:
And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
That 1,260 days points to the entire New Testament church age. It is 1,260 days that actually turns out to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years in duration. So the “one hour” reference is not literal and the “1,260 days” reference is not literal.
Also, in Revelation 11, we read of the “two witnesses” that are killed and it says in Revelation 11:9:
And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Is that three days and a half days literal? No – it is referring to the end of the testimony of the Word of God in the congregations and the end of the first Jubilee or the first time that God was evangelizing the earth. The “three days and an half” are describing the 2,300 evening mornings, the first part of the Great Tribulation, which worked out to six years and about four months. Therefore, it is not a literal three and one half days. No matter what time period you assign to that three and one half days, it is most obvious it is not a literal statement at all.
So God can use small periods of time and make them, in actuality, to be much longer periods of times. Or, He can do the reverse. Remember what it said in 2nd Peter 3:8:
…one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
We saw that in relationship to the flood, when God said to Noah, “Yet seven days” and it would flood upon the earth, He had in view 7,000 years, so although that seven days in Genesis 7:4 was, historically, a literal seven days until the flood, spiritually, it had a 7,000 year connotation; that is, 7,000 years later on May 21, 2011, on the very date that the flood began on 2-17 in the days of Noah, May 21, 2011, also had the underlying calendar date of 2-17, exactly 7,000 years later.
Also, referring to a “thousand years,” in Revelation 20, we find several references to a “thousand years.” There is the “thousand years” that Satan is bound; after a “thousand years” he will be loosed. None of them are literal. The “thousand years” represents the completeness of Satan’s binding and it turned out to be an actual period of 1,955 years.
So, what does all this teach us? What do we learn? Well, we learn that if Revelation 9:5 is speaking of a literal “five months,” it would basically stand alone in the Book of Revelation as a literal time frame. All the other time references that are given, as far as I can tell, are not literal. They are not literal at all – whether it be “one hour;” or whether it be “one day,” in speaking of the judgment that came on Babylon in “one day,” referring to Judgment Day, which is a prolonged period of time; or whether it be the “three and one half days,” or whether it be the “ten days” of being tried in Revelation 2, which is also pointing to the entire Great Tribulation period; or whether it be 1,260 days; or whether it be a “thousand years.”
None of these time references are to be taken literally, so we must make the correction that God is not speaking of a literal “five months,” but a figurative “five months” in Revelation 9:5. That would be in keeping with, and along the lines of, all the other time references He has given us in the Book of Revelation.